Method and Apparatus for Transporting a Client Signal Over an Optical Network

1. A method of transporting a client signal across an optical transport network comprising: dividing a received client signal into a plurality of parallel signals at a lower bit rate; mapping the parallel signals into a respective number of optical data units (ODUs), each ODU having payload bytes and overhead bytes; mapping each ODU into a respective optical transport unit (OTU) having payload bytes and overhead bytes; transmitting the OTUs across respective optical carriers; and inserting optical channel control information into the overhead bytes of the ODU and/or OTU, the optical channel control information being used to request a change in the optical carriers used to transport the client signal.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical carriers are a set of parallel wavelengths that are separately modulated.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical carriers are optical carriers of a super-channel, the optical carriers of the super-channel being synchronously modulated.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optical carriers are optically multiplexed to generate a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) signal.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising controlling at least one of the steps of: the dividing the received client signal into the plurality of parallel signals, the mapping the plurality of parallel signals into the respective number of ODUs, the mapping each ODU into the respective optical transport unit and the transmitting the OTU across respective optical carriers of a super-channel.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one of the steps controlled is performed upon receiving an acknowledgement from a node.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the change comprises at least one of: adding an optical carriers, subtracting an optical carrier, and re-allocating the same number of optical carriers.

8. A method of receiving a signal from an optical transport network, the method comprising: receiving optical carriers; recovering optical transport units (OTUs), each OTU having payload bytes and overhead bytes; recovering optical data units (ODUs), each ODU having payload bytes and overhead bytes; recovering a plurality of parallel data signals from the ODUs; combining the plurality of parallel data signals into a client signal at a higher bit rate; and recovering optical channel control information from the overhead bytes of the ODU and/or OTU, the optical channel control information being used to request a change in the optical carriers used to transport the client signal.

9. An apparatus for use at a node for transporting a client signal across an optical transport network comprising: a demultiplexer arranged to divide a received client signal into a plurality of parallel signals at a lower bit rate; an optical data unit (ODU) mapper arranged to map the parallel signals into a respective number of ODUs, each ODU having payload bytes and overhead bytes; an optical transport unit (OTU) mapper arranged to map each ODU into a respective OTU having payload bytes and overhead bytes; transponders arranged to transmit the OTUs across respective optical carriers; and a channel manager arranged to insert optical channel control information into the overhead bytes of the ODU and/or OTU, the optical channel control information being used to request a change in the optical carriers used to transport the client signal.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the optical carriers are a set of parallel wavelengths that are separately modulated.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the optical carriers are optical carriers of a super-channel, the optical carriers of the super-channel being synchronously modulated.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the optical carriers are optically multiplexed to generate a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) signal.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the change is to be one of: adding an optical carriers, subtracting an optical carrier, and re-allocating the same number of optical carriers.

14. An apparatus for use at a node for receiving a signal from an optical transport network comprising: a plurality of receivers each arranged to receive an optical carrier and to output optical transport units (OTUs); an OTU de-mapper arranged to recover optical data units (ODUs), each ODU having payload bytes and overhead bytes from the OTUs; an ODU de-mapper arranged to recover a plurality of parallel data signals from the ODUs; a multiplexer arranged to combine the plurality of parallel data signals into a client signal at a higher bit rate; and a channel manager arranged to recover optical channel control information from the overhead bytes of the ODU and/or OTU, the optical channel control information being used to request a change in the optical carriers used to transport the client signal.